Jewcology » Concentration of Corporate Power

Al Chet – Confession for the Earth

Owner of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 01:08:55 +0000

by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen

Eternal God, You created earth and heavens with mercy, and blew the breath of life into animals and humans. We were created amidst a world of wholeness, a world called “very good,” pure and beautiful, but now your many works are being erased by us from the book of life.

Not by our righteousness do we plead our prayers before You, Holy One of All, for we have sinned, we have despoiled, we have destroyed.

And so we confess together our collective sins, and ask for forgiveness:

For the sin which we have committed before You intentionally or unintentionally;

And for the sin which we have committed before You inadvertently;

For the sin which we have committed before You openly or secretly,

And for the sin which we have committed before You knowingly or unknowingly;

For the sin which we have committed before You, and before our children and grandchildren, by desecrating the sacred Earth,

And for the sin which we have committed before You of going beyond being fruitful and multiplying to overfilling the planet;

For the sin which we have committed before You by putting comfort above conscience,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by putting convenience above compassion;

For the sin we have committed against You by believing we are doing enough,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by reaping the dividends of unsustainability;

For the sin which we have committed before You through fear of speaking out,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by eating and drinking without concern for Earth and its hungry and thirsty;

For the sin which we have committed before You by saying we don’t have time,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by staying alive beyond the boundaries of our allotted life span:

For all of these, God of pardon, pardon us, forgive us, atone for us.

For the sin which we have committed before You by not pressuring our elected officials,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by gaining wealth through fossil fuels;

For the sin which we have committed before You by denying the impact of our white privilege,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by closing our hearts and eyes to injustice;

For the sin which we have committed before You by filling land and ocean with filth, toxins and garbage,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by extinguishing forever species which You saved from the waters of the flood;

For the sin which we have committed before You by razing forests and trees, rivers and mountains,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by turning the atmosphere into a chastening rod;

For the sin which we have committed before You by making desolate habitats that give life to every living soul,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by a confused heart;

For all of these, God of pardon, pardon us, forgive us, atone for us.

For the sin which we have committed before You by thinking separately of US and THEM,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by using more than our share of Earth’s resources;

For the sin which we have committed before You by considering human life more important than other forms of life,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by being deceived by those with power;

For the sin which we have committed before You by not finding the courage to overcome the reality of the lobbies,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by wanting to act only in ways that will serve us economically;

For the sin which we have committed before You by failing to create sufficient local, green jobs,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by trying to convince people rather than drawing them in;

For the sin which we have committed before You by not thinking into the future when we act,

And for the sin which we have committed before You by living in relative safety and not being caring of others;

For all of these, God of pardon, pardon us, forgive us, atone for us.

And yet, we know that we can only achieve forgiveness from You, O G!d of All That Is after we have sought forgiveness from our fellow living beings, and so, in order to achieve atonement, forgiveness, and pardon,

Help us, Holy One, to enter into loving respectful conversation,

Help us to create deep conversations,

And help us to listen to people.

Help us, Merciful One, to become empowered to talk and to connect,

Help us to be creative in how we start the conversation,

And help us to use our sacred texts as a foundation for our conversations.

Help us, Compassionate One, to start where people are and transition to climate change,

Help us to use humor as a vehicle of engaging people,

Help us to start with experience of nature and end with responsibility of saving world.

In order to achieve atonement, forgiveness, and pardon,

Help us, Holy One, to acknowledge that we are all in this together,

Help us to celebrate the positives happening in the world.

Help us, Source of All, to build coalitions,

Help us to create partnerships where we see other people’s needs.

Help us, Eternal One, to organize local solutions,

And help us to recognize that ownership and collective action are important.

Open our eyes to see the majesty of Your creation! Then we will praise you as it is written: “How manifold are Your works, Holy One! You made them all with wisdom; the earth is filled with what you hold.”

Please, Source of All, protect all living beings, in the shade of your wings give us refuge. Renew the face of the earth, save the weave and fullness of life. Please, Mysterious One, remove the heart of stone from our flesh, and set within us a heart of flesh, that we may behold the Godly therein. Grant us wisdom and courage to heal and to watch over this garden of life, to make it thrive under the heavens.

Help us to realize that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Adapted from the traditional Jewish High Holiday liturgy and works by Rabbi Lawrence Troster, Rabbi Daniel Nevins (which I found at neohasid.org), and, at the suggestion of Rabbi Judy Weiss, material from the Jewish Climate Action Network of Boston created with the help of Gary Rucinski.

Note: Hyperlinks above are to organizations that work to help the environment in ways that bear some relationship to the selected text. This is a work in progress, and I hope to add more links. If you have suggestions, please email them to rabbikza@verizon.net.

Rabbi Katy Z. Allen is the founder and leader of Ma’yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope in Wayland, MA, and a staff chaplain at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She is the co-convener of the Jewish Climate Action Network, a member of the Jewcology.org editorial board, a board member of Shomrei Bereishit: Rabbis and Cantors for the Earth, and the co-creator of Gathering in Grief: The Israel / Gaza Conflict.

Spread over all of us the Sukkah of shalom, salaam, paz, peace!

TheShalomCenter — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 06:24:20 +0000

Can our Sukkot become not only symbols but peacemaking sanctuaries for both "adam" and "adamah"?

As we enter the Shmita / Sabbatical Year, we may be asking what its content might be. We can begin, just a few days before Rosh Hashanah, joining the several dozen Jewish organizations that will take part in the People’s Climate March in New York City, Sunday Septembr 21, beginning at 11:30 am.

Then on Rosh Hashanah (which can mean “New Year” or “Start of Transformation”), we might celebrate what the tradition sees as the birthday of the world, or of the human species (adam) as we emerged from Mother Earth (adamah). On Yom Kippur, we might enrich the Avodah service by prostrating ourselves on the grass of Mother Earth as our forebears did at the Temple in Jerusalem, murmuring to ourselves the sacred name of YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh by simply breathing, as the High Priest did on that day when he emerged from the Holy of Holies.

And on Sukkot, the Festival of fullness (Full Moon of the sabbatical/ seventh month, the harvest time of full abundance), we might draw on a powerful line from our evening prayers: “Spread over all of us a sukkah of Your peace.”

What is a “sukkah”? It is a fragile hut, fragile in time and space. Its leafy, leaky roof must be open to the stars and the rain. It stands for only a week –– a festival week called by its name, Sukkot, to celebrate the harvest, to pray for the rain that will make the next harvest possible, and to implore God’s bounty not for Jews alone but for all the nations of the world.

This is our proposal for active hope, hopeful activism: On the Sunday and (Columbus Day holiday) Monday that fall during Sukkot this year — October 12 and 13 — let Jews invite into their sukkot, those leafy, leaky, vulnerable huts, the actual people and the explicit intent of celebrating peace, welcoming all peoples, and healing the Earth.

That intent calls us to merge the joy of Sukkot – which is called “The Festival,” “the season of our joy” – with determination to end the militarization of our lives and the extreme, quasi-military, exploitation of our Earth.

Examples of this militarization abound, but for Jewcology let us focus on :

The quasi-military destruction of mountains, the creation of asthma epidemics, and the overheating of our planet for the sake of profit-hungry Big Coal.
The quasi-military fracking and poisoning of our water, the burning of towns along the railroad tracks, the despoiling of land along the pipelines, and the overheating of our planet for the sake of profit-hungry Big Oil.
The quasi-military forcefulness of global scorching that imposes on the Earth and on the human community – especially on the poor – the droughts that make for famine, turning poverty into hunger and hunger into starvation, and the superstorms and rising sea levels that flood our cities and our homes.

How do we make the sukkah into both a joyful affirmation of peace and a challenge to purveyors of such violence?

To begin with, why does the prayer not call for a Temple of peace, a Palace of peace, a Fortress of peace, even a House of peace — but instead for the most vulnerable of all dwellings, a Sukkah of peace? Precisely because it isvulnerable. The sukkah is in itself a teaching that peace cannot be achieved with steel walls, lead bullets, fiery bombs –- but only with a sense of welcome, of compassion, and of shared vulnerability

In fact, as the attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11 showed, despite all our efforts to storm Heaven by building towers to scrape the sky, we all actually do live in sukkot, vulnerable to attack unless we turn our enemies into friends.

But that implicit quality of the sukkah is not sufficient to challenge the explicit forces of destruction that we face.

So — Jews who honor the traditions of Sukkot could invite those who are likeliest to be the targets and victims of this attack against the Earth — African-Americans, Hispanic immigrants, Appalachian poor whites — to join in sukkot on October 12 and 13 to sing, dance, tell each other stories of our different lives, pray, discuss the needs we all have for sustainable sustenance and equal justice, and make sure that we all vote in the elections that will come a few weeks later.

Besides hundreds of such peacemaking sukkot across our country and the world, perhaps a sukkah should be built during those days in Lafayette Park across from the White House, in the USA; in Independence Park, in Jerusalem.There we could challenge the US government –

to end the heating and poisoning of our country and all Earth by Big Carbon,
and to seek peace and pursue it in a myriad other contexts – our cities and our neighbors overseas.

And so may we ourselves “spread over all of us the sukkah of shalom, salaam, paz, peace”!

Dead Young Men: Mississippi, Israel, Palestine

TheShalomCenter — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 14:03:46 +0000

I spent several days last week in Mississippi, –

Mourning the murders of three young men 50 years ago;

Celebrating a Mississippi that today is very different;

Facing the truth that Earth and human communities –– especially, still, those of color and of poverty –- are being deeply wounded by the Carbon Pharaohs’ exploitation and oppression;

Talking/ working toward a future of joyful community in which Mother Earth and her human children can live in peace with each other in the embrace of One Breath.

And then, a few days later, came the news of the murders of three young men just weeks ago –- three Israeli youngsters, their bodies, like those of Mickey Schwerner, Andy Goodman, and James Earl Chaney, hidden while the search went forward for them.

But not only them. The violent deaths of young Palestinian boys/men as well, during the Israeli Army crack-down on the West Bank. Their mothers also mourning. As the New York Times reported the day before the three Israeli bodies were discovered:

“Most Israelis see the missing teenagers as innocent civilians captured on their way home from school, and the Palestinians who were killed as having provoked soldiers. Palestinians, though, see the very act of attending yeshiva in a West Bank settlement as provocation, and complain that the crackdown is collective punishment against a people under illegal occupation.”

Is there a danger of “moral relativism” in mentioning these deaths together? Is the cold-blooded murder of three hitchhiking youngsters morally equivalent to killings carried out by angry, frightened soldiers faced with a protesting mob? At the individual level, No.

But at the level of public policy, there is also no moral equivalence between a cold-blooded military occupation and the impotent rage of the occupied.

Above all, there is no “relativism” in the tears of mothers.

Some Israelis and some Palestinians have joined their sorrow over the killings of their own children to work in the Circle of Bereaved Families for a peace that would end the killing. (See <http://www.theparentscircle.com/>.)

Others –-including some Israeli cabinet ministers in the last day — have defined their deaths as the warrant for more killing.

But Mississippi did not change through threats like that. It changed because an aroused American citizenry from outside Mississippi allied itself with the oppressed community inside Mississippi to demand – through nonviolent direct action and through passing laws — that an oppressed population of black folk be freed to achieve some measure of political power.

As a result of that arousal, the deaths 50 years ago have made a visible difference. Fifty years ago, a scant few black Mississippians had been allowed to register to vote. As the “Freedom Summer + 50” gathering opened last week, thousands of black Mississippians who are devoted to the Democratic Party intervened in a Republican primary to prevent the nomination and for-sure election of a far-right Tea Party candidate.

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, no sufficiently powerful outside energy has made the commitment to bring all its lawful, nonviolent power to bear to achieve a two-state peace. So the violence worsens in a downward spiral of injustice.

What the gathering in Mississippi showed was that even when change is still necessary, even when injustice still continues, there can be an upward spiral, growing from past transformations into future ones.

For the gathering at Tougaloo College addressed the future as much as the past. The memory of youthful deaths so many years ago –- we recited their names, we sang their songs, we welcomed their families — became the celebration of youthful courage that had led to serious change. So not only many veterans of 1964 were there, but also many many young activists, come to learn and be inspired.

So we addressed the injustices that persist, and we took up some levels of injustice that fifty years ago were not on anyone’s agenda. Even Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published in 1962, did not envision a massive disruption of the planetary climate system and the web of life it has nurtured for millions of years.

So there was a confluence of issues almost unimaginable in 1964 when Jacqueline Patterson of the NAACP staff brought together two excellent workshops on ”climate justice.” They were the first climate–action settings I have ever seen in which people of color — Black and Hispanic and Asian and Native — were at least half of those present.

Many spoke of two clear cases in their own region when the fossil-fuel Pharaohs had shattered the lives of poor communities of color even worse than they had damaged prosperous whites:

How Hurricane Katrina (which was greatly worsened by the oil rigs that chopped up marshy wetlands that used to absorb much of the energy of hurricanes when they hit land) had most damaged the poor folk who were living closer to the river (because houses were cheaper there).
And how poor folk also were the slowest and still the least served by relief and reconstruction efforts after the BP Oil blow-out in the Gulf.

And we learned as well how on a global level the overheating of our planet was hurting and killing the poor even worse than others: How droughts in California, the US corn-belt, central Africa, and Russia had raised the price of staple foods so badly that those who were teetering on the edge in poverty fell into hunger, and those who had been hungry faced starvation. And some who were starving fought civil wars to get their hands on food.

We discussed alternatives for climate activism. Some of us talked about the model of the “Freedom Schools” that emerged in 1964, teaching where the impulses to learn and teach were deeply interwoven with the impulse to heal the world. Those Freedom Schools helped give birth to the Teach-Ins against the Vietnam War that flowered in the spring of ’65.

Could we create new Freedom Schools, new Teach-Ins, to fuse the science of climate and the facts of Corporate Carbon domination with the strategies of change? Was our gathering itself a kind of Freedom School, a Teach-In, with the young and the old teaching each other?

And Freedom Summer inspired co-ops, the redirection of our money from feeding bloated corporate power to nourishing the seeds of a grass-roots economic democracy. In that spirit, I shared The Shalom Center’s campaign to Move Our Money/Protect Our Planet (MOM/POP) and handed out copies of our “Action Handbook” on specific steps for how to Move Our Money. See <https://theshalomcenter.org/treasury/209>

All of us learned more deeply how important it is to recognize and act on the true linkage of what we might call
eco-social justice.

And we learned that what happened fifty years ago in Mississippi sowed the seeds of our ability to recognize and resist new depredations of today. We saw how deeply the nonviolent movement of fifty years before had, even when some of its activists were killed, given continuing birth to nonviolent responses to make more necessary change.

I ended one of those workshops by invoking the spirit of Vincent Harding. If he had not died just a month ago, I said, he would have been deeply pleased by our intergenerational learning, and he would have brought his own deep listening and the quiet with which he surrounded his own wise words.

And most of all, he would have brought his willingness to invest his life in the effort to use nonviolence to expand democracy, to win justice for those who have been oppressed.

And now, in the wake of the news from Palestine and Israel, his ghostly, powerful presence actually reminds me of the Unity of that long effort. For just two summers ago, Brother Vincent took part in a delegation of American Jews and Blacks to visit the occupied West Bank and bring hope to Palestinians committed to nonviolence.

Brother Vincent would have wept over the deaths of the young men of both peoples. As do I.

May the tears we shed become the wellsprings not of revenge but of transformation — as they did in Mississippi.

And may we teach the intertwinement of eco-social justice, learning anew from Freedom Summer’s creativity to go beyond our forebears — as they did.

Shalom, salaam, paz, peace! — Arthur

70+ Rabbinic Call to Move Our Money to Protect Our Planet

TheShalomCenter — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 12:12:49 +0000

Dear chevra,

By April 30, 2014, more than 70 Rabbis and other Jewish spiritual leaders have signed this Call. Now we appeal to all members of the Jewish community to join in this effort. To do so, please click to:
<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=11&reset=1>

We — Rabbis, Cantors, and other Jewish spiritual leaders —
call upon Jewish households, congregations, seminaries,
communal and denominational bodies, and other institutions:
Move Our Money to Protect Our Planet.

In the ancient tradition from Sinai, naaseh v’nishma: Let us act, and as we do let us listen and learn.

Let us act:

To Move Our Money and Protect Our Planet, we call on the Jewish community to:

Move Our Money (household and congregational) away from purchasing oil and coal-based energy and moving instead, wherever possible, to buy energy from wind and solar sources.
Move Our Money (household and congregational) away from savings and checking accounts in banks that are investing our money in Big Carbon, moving it instead to community banks and credit unions;
Move Our Money (household, congregational, communal, and denominational) away from actual investments in the stocks and bonds of death-dealing Big Oil, Big Coal, and Big Unnatural Gas, and move it instead to investments in stable, profitable solar and wind-energy companies and in community-based enterprises that help those who suffer from asthma and other diseases caused by Big Carbon;
Organize our congregants and members to insist that local and state governments similarly Move Our Money – often in large pension funds — from investments in death to investments in life.
Insist that Congress Move Our Money — money we pay in taxes — away from subsidies to Big Oil, Big Coal, and Big Unnatural Gas, and instead to supporting research, development, and production of life-giving renewable energy.

Let us learn:

We are a world people who still bear the wisdom of indigenous farmers and shepherds, meditators and sages, cooks and city planners:

Our festivals dance with the rhythms of Earth, Moon, and Sun;
Our Shabbat points the way toward a sustainable rhythm of work and rest;
Our kashrut points the way toward sacred limits and practices in consuming not only food but other gifts of Mother Earth;
Our long long history of resistance to the pharaohs that oppress human beings, lift up idols to worship, and bring plagues upon the Earth gives us a reservoir of commitment and clarity in political action.

And when as a world/indigenous people we join words and foods in the Pesach Seder, we find twin powerful passages of the Haggadah:

In every generation, some new versions of “pharaoh” arise to endanger us.
In every generation, we ourselves must act to win our freedom from destruction.

In our generation, these Pharaohs are global corporations of Big Carbon that are bringing the Plagues of climate crisis upon all life-forms on Planet Earth — a crisis of a breadth and depth unprecedented in the history of the human species.

And in our generation, we can resist these new pharaohs by moving our money to places where it will serve life and heal our wounded Earth.

Moving from what is deadly to what is life-giving echoes the deepest transformation of our history: In the very process of freeing ourselves from Pharaoh, we learned to shape a new kind of society — Beyond the Red Sea, we moved to Shabbat and Sinai.

Half a century ago, the American Jewish community joined with other religious communities to challenge racism, and together we were crucial in taking a great step toward healing America. Today the Holy One and the Earth need us again to join with other religious, spiritual, and ethical communities to make ourselves a crucial part of the movement to heal our planetary climate.

As Rabbi Akiba taught, facing the dangerous Caesars of his day: “Which is greater, study or action? Study, if it leads to action.” (Kiddushin 40b)

So we — Rabbis, Cantors, other Jewish spiritual leaders, and students in these sacred callings — not only join in this Call but also undertake a campaign to bring this life-giving vision of Torah into the hills and rivers, streets and forests, newspapers and videos, homes and campuses, neighborhoods and synagogues, of our generation.

By April 30, 2014, more than 70 Rabbis and other Jewish spiritual leaders have signed this Call.
The Initiating Signers are below; to see the full list of signers, please click to
<https://theshalomcenter.org/content/rabbinic-call-move-our-money-protect-our-planet >

Now we appeal to all members of the Jewish community to join in this effort. To do so, please click to:
<https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=11&reset=1>

Initiating Signers:

Rabbi Katy Allen
Rabbi Phyllis Berman
Spiritual Dir Barbara Breitman
Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Rabbi Howard Cohen

Rabbi Elliot Dorff
Rabbi Nancy Flam
Rabbi Everett Gendler
Rabbi Marc Gopin
Rabbi Arthur Green
Rabbi Lori Klein
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Rabbi Jan Salzman
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Kohenet Holly Taya Shere
Rabbi Sidney Schwarz
Rabbi David Shneyer
Rabbi Ariana Silverman
Rabbi Ed Stafman
Rabbi Margot Stein
Rabbi Susan Talve
Rabbi Lawrence Troster
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg
Cantor Greg Yaroslow
Rabbi Shawn Zevit

___ Please add my name as a signer of this Call:
Sign online at <https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=11&reset=1>

Why Jews Should Oppose Ag-Gag Laws

Richard Schwartz — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 22:05:19 +0000

The current widespread mistreatment of animals in the food industry, especially on factory farms, is inconsistent with Judaism’s ethic of compassion for animals. Nevertheless, most Jews are eating foods that entail animal abuse in almost all major phases of animal agriculture.

In addition to institutionalized abuses that are integral to the raising of animals for food, many undercover videos have revealed sadistic mistreatment of animals by workers.

But instead of taking the necessary steps to put an end to such abuses, the animal food industries would rather cover them up and keep the public in the dark as to how animals are treated on factory farms and in slaughterhouses. Their latest efforts involve the imposition of “ag-gag” laws, legislation that would criminalize the undercover videotaping of conditions at factory farms or slaughterhouses.

What do they have to hide? Apparently, quite a lot, or this legislation wouldn’t be so powerfully backed.

Rather than improving conditions for animals, something that would reduce their profits, the agribusiness industry prefers to enlist the government in keeping its “dirty secrets” of animal abuses, environmental hazards, and unsafe working conditions.

Amazingly, in this land of democracy and freedom, anti-whistle-blowing bills have passed in six states since 1990 (Iowa, Utah and Missouri, North Dakota, Montana and Kansas) and additional ones were proposed in eleven states in 2013 (Arkansas, California, Indiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wyoming, and Vermont). So far, none of the additional laws have passed.

In addition to being opposed by animal welfare groups, ag-gag laws are strongly contested by environmental, food justice, food safety, workers rights, civil liberties, public health, journalistic and First Amendment organizations. These groups include Humane Society of the US (HSUS), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Amnesty International USA, Farm Sanctuary, Food and Water Watch, Food Chain Workers Alliance, Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, International Labor Rights Forum, National Consumers League, and United Farm Workers. Their statement of opposition includes: “These bills represent a wholesale assault on many fundamental values shared by all people across the United States. Not only would these bills perpetuate animal abuse on industrial farms, they would also threaten workers’ rights, consumer health and safety, law enforcement investigations and the freedom of journalists, employees and the public at large to share information about something as fundamental as our food supply.”

In addition to many local newspapers, the New York Times, Boston Globe and New Haven Register have editorialized against ag-gag laws.

These anti-whistleblower bills raise the key question, “What does animal agriculture have to hide?” What is going on behind the scene? Isn’t the public entitled to know how their food is produced? Perhaps there is some truth in Paul McCartney’s statement, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.”

Our sages define the Jewish people as “rachmanim b’nei rachmanim (compassionate children of compassionate ancestors),” emulating the ways of God, Whose “compassion is over all His works.” (Psalms 145:9) Especially since Judaism places great stress on the production, preparation and consumption of food, for both ritualistic and ethical reasons, we should play an active role in opposing ag-gag laws and working to sharply reduce or eliminate abuses of farmed animals.

Some of the ways to do this are by spreading information about the available undercover videos of animal abuses, writing letters opposing op-ed laws to editors and state legislators, and increasing awareness that vegetarianism (and even more so, veganism) is most consistent with Jewish teachings on preserving human health, treating animals with compassion, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and helping hungry people, and that animal-based diets are having devastating effects on human health and the environment.

A Tu B’Shvat Seder to Heal the Wounded Earth

TheShalomCenter — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 12:32:47 +0000

The New Year – for Rebirthing Trees:
[This version of the Haggadah for Tu B’Shvat has been greatly adapted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow of The Shalom Center from a Haggadah shaped by Ellen Bernstein, as published in Trees, Earth, and Torah: A Tu B’Shvat Anthology (Jewish Publ. Soc., 1999, ed. by Elon, Hyman, & Waskow). Bernstein wrote introductory remarks to sections of that Haggadah, many of which have been included or adapted for this one. They are indicated in the text by the initials “EB.” * The desire for such a Haggadah grew from discussions of the Green Hevra, a network of Jewish environmental organizations. Thanks to Judith Belasco, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Sybil Sanchez, Rabbi David Seidenberg, Richard Schwartz, Rabbi David Shneyer, and Yoni Stadlin for comments on an earlier draft of this Haggadah. With especially deep thanks to Ellen Bernstein and the Green Hevra, I note that neither bears responsibility for this version. — AW]
This Tu B’Shvat haggadah focuses on healing the wounded Earth today, with passages on major policy questions facing the human race in the midst of a great climate crisis and massive extinctions of species.

In each of the Four Worlds in this Haggadah (Earth, Water, Air, Fire) there are traditional, mystical, and poetical passages, and in each there are also contemporary passages on aspects of public policy (Earth: food and forest; Water: fracking; Air: climate; Fire: alternative and renewable energy sources.) These policy-oriented passages help make this a unique Haggadah. After these passages, this Haggadah encourages Seder participants to take time for discussion. They may also decide to omit some passages and/or add others.

Please feel free to use this Haggadah in your own celebration, and to share this letter with others who might be moved by its fusion of spiritual ceremony, poetic insight, and activist energy for profound social change. To support The Shalom Center in creating such work, please click: <https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1

A TU B’SHVAT SEDER TO HEAL THE WOUNDED EARTH

A Song to Welcome the Celebrants:

We’ve got the whole world in our hands:
We’ve got the rivers and the mountains in our hands;
We’ve got the trees and the tigers in our hands;
We’ve got the whole world in our hands.

We’ve got the wind and the oceans in our hands,
We’ve got our sisters and our brothers in our hands,
We’ve got our children and their children in our hands,
WE’VE GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN OUR HANDS!

Introductory Invocations

“Said Rabbi Simeon: ‘Mark this well. Fire, air, earth and water are the sources and roots of all things above and below, and all things above, below, are grounded in them.’” (Zohar, Exodus 23b)

“Sh’sh’sh’sh’ma Yisrael, Yahhhh Elohenu, Yahhhh Echad: Hush’sh’sh’sh to Hear, you Godwrestlers: our God is The Interbreathing-Spirit of all Life; The Interbreath of Life is ONE.

“If you hush’sh’sh’sh to listen, really listen, to the teachings of YHWH/ Yahhhh, the Interbreath of Life, especially the teaching that there is Unity in the world and inter-connection among all its parts, then the rains will fall as they should, the rivers will run, the heavens will smile, and the good earth will fruitfully feed you. BUT if you chop the world up into parts and choose one or a few to worship – like gods of wealth and power, greed, the addiction to Do and Make and Produce without pausing to Be and make Shabbat — then the rain won’t fall – or it will turn to acid; the rivers won’t run – or they will flood your cities because you have left no earth where the rain can soak in; and the heavens themselves will become your enemy: the ozone layer will cease shielding you, the Carbon Dioxide you pour into the air will scorch your planet. And then you will perish from the good earth that the Breath of Life gives you.”

(A midrashic translation by Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Sh’ma and its traditional second paragraph, which originally appeared in Deuteronomy 11: 13-17,)

“Know that every shepherd has a unique niggun [melody] for each of the grasses and for each place where they herd. For each and every grass has its own song and from these songs of the grasses, the shepherds compose their songs.”

“…Would that I merited hearing the sound of the songs and praises of the grasses, how every blade of grass sings to the Holy One of Blessing, wholeheartedly with no reservations and without anticipation of reward. How wonderful it is when one hears their song and how very good to be amongst them serving our Creator in awe.” (Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav)

“A person who enjoys the pleasures of this world without blessing is called a thief because the blessing is what causes the continuation of the divine flow of the world.” (Peri Eitz Hadar, the original plan for the Tu B’Shvat Seder, publ. 1728).

The Four Worlds

[If there is a leader, s/he may lead the group in the meditations at the beginning of each world, and the kavannot before the blessings. The group as a whole sings. Distribute the readings in each world ‑embellish here, too…. from your own sources‑‑ before the beginning of the seder so that as many people have parts as possible. Other activities, such as dancing, storytelling, etc, should be inserted into the appropriate world. – EB]
I. ASIYAH (Actuality, Physicality): The World of Earth

MEDITATION:

Earth is the rhythm of our feet on the Mountain. In this world, we bless the physical: our bodies, our land, our homes. It is our connection to the Earth which inspires Action. [EB]

SONGS: “Tzadik KaTamar,” ”You Shall Indeed Go Out with Joy,” “Inch by Inch (The Garden Grows)”

READINGS: FOOD

“And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken, yes hearken to my commandments which I command you this day, to love YHWH your God and to serve the One with all your heart and soul, then I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, and your wine, and your oil. And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be satisfied. Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them. Then the anger of YHWH will burn against you, and the One will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land YHWH is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 11:13-17).

“In the seventh year there shall be a Shabbat to the exponential power of Shabbat; a Sabbath-pausing for the Land, for the sake of YHWH, the Interbreath of Life. Your field you are not to sow; your vineyard you are not to prune. And the Land shall not be sold in harness, for the Land is Mine; you are sojourners and resident-settlers with Me.” (Leviticus 25: 4, 23).

“And if you will not hearken to Me, I will make the land desolate, and through these days of desolation the land will find Shabbat, since it was unable to make a Shabbat-pausing when you were settled on it.” (Lev. 26: 32-35)

“In nature, what dies and decays provides the fertility for that which is to continue. At one time farmers respected these processes and used them to advantage. Farming is no longer a way of life, no longer husbandry or even agriculture. It is big business….agribusiness.

“Agribusiness does not love the land. It treats soil as a raw material to use up. The result of the exploitation of the soil is soil erosion, soil compaction, soil and water pollution, pests and disease due to monoculture, depopulation of the country, decivilization of the city.” (Adapted from Wendell Berry, The Gift of the Good Land)

“Judaism teaches us to become good stewards of the Earth. But Monsanto – a major player in industrial global-corporate agriculture – is imposing genetically modified crops on more and more farms, with the result that some farmers report the growth of “superweeds” and end up using about 25 percent more herbicides than farmers who use traditional seeds.
“Monsanto also threatens the sustainability of agriculture because its products require the use of larger quantities of water and fossil fuels in farming. While genetically engineered crops are supposed to be more drought resistant, the opposite turns out to be true.
“And Monsanto is a major threat to a sustainable climate and society because it pushes an energy-intensive agricultural model and promotes ethanol as a fuel source.” (Rabbi Mordechai Liebling)

“Jewish wisdom, from the earliest verses of Torah to the teachings of Rav Kook in the 20th century, yearn toward a vegetarian diet. Now we must do more than yearning. Current livestock agriculture contributes greatly to all four major global warming gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, and chlorofluorocarbons. Every year millions of acres of tropical forest are burned, primarily to raise livestock, releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The highly mechanized agricultural sector uses a significant amount of fossil fuel energy, and this also contributes to carbon dioxide emissions. Cattle emit methane as part of their digestive and excretory processes.
A 2009 cover article in World Watch magazine, ‘Livestock and Climate Change,’ by two environmentalists associated with the World Bank argued that the livestock sector is responsible for at least 51 percent of all human-induced greenhouse gases. This is largely due to the massive destruction of tropical rain forests to produce pasture land and land to grow feed crops for animals and the emission of methane from farmed animals. During the 20-year periods that methane remains in the atmosphere it is per molecule 72 times more potent in causing warming than CO2.
“According to a 2006 UN Food and Agriculture Organization report ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow,’ animal-based agriculture emits more greenhouse gases (in carbon dioxide equivalents) than all the cars, planes, ships and other means of transportation combined (18 percent versus 13.5 percent).

“A shift toward plant-based diets is essential.” (Richard H. Schwartz president@JewishVeg.com.>)

READINGS: FOREST

“Master of the Universe, Grant me the ability to be alone; May it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and grasses, among all growing things and there may I be alone, and enter into prayer to talk with the one that I belong to.” (Reb Nachman of Bratzlav)

“Jewish mysticism imagines the cosmos to be a manifestation of the divine which unfolds through ten powers or qualities, which are called the sefirot. The sefirot …are seen as both emanated and eternal, created and pre-existent; as such, the sefirot become the pattern both for God and creation. The world of the sefirot is typically pictured in terms of two forms: a cosmic tree and a primordial human body.

“The central sefirot are described both as the trunk of a body and the trunk of a tree. It is this tree which we celebrate on Tu B’Shvat, the “New Year for The Tree,” as Kabbalists understood the mishnaic phrase “rosh ha-shanah la-ilan”. The way in which these forms overlap has three obvious implications: 1) the human is patterned in the image of both creation and God simultaneously, 2) creation in its totality is therefore also “in God’s image,” and 3) the tree itself is also created in the image of God.

“The unity of human and tree which is the basis of the Kabbalistic Tu B’Shvat seder is not just a metaphor for how important trees are to us, but a meditation on the idea that both trees and human creatures are patterned after the life of the cosmos. By examining humans and trees together, we may understand something deeper about the meaning of the life we are given and its place in the life of the world.” (Rabbi David Seidenberg , from “The Human, the Tree, and the Image of God,” in Trees, Earth, and Torah)

“In a brief moment in the life of our planet, we have destroyed all but a remnant of Earth’s ancient forests. Over the last 300 years, the majestic ancient forests that once covered our continent have been reduced to a small remnant. The United States has already lost a stunning 96% of its old growth forests. Worldwide, 80% of old growth forests have been destroyed, and every year another 16 million hectares fall to the ax, torch, bulldozer, or chain saw.

“As a result, thousands of creatures are at risk of extinction.

“The remaining wild forests are refuges for thousands of threatened creatures and plants, and are vital to the protection of clean water sources for tens of millions of North Americans. Wild forests also serve as refuges for the human spirit, places where we can witness the Creator’s majesty, reflect upon the mystery of life, and hear the small, still voice within. …

“Therefore, the Central Conference of American Rabbis calls upon all Reform households, schools, synagogues, and camps to:

recycle waste paper and buy only those paper products that are made with a high percentage of post-consumer content recycled paper;
use only wood certified as sustainably harvested by the Certified Forest Products Council for all construction purposes;
divest from corporations whose activities contribute to the destruction of forests in the U.S. and abroad; dedicate one Shabbat or holiday (such as Tu B’Shevat or Sukkot) to learning about environmental issues and Jewish environmental ethics.…
Furthermore, the CCAR calls upon the federal government … to protect roadless areas in National Forests … and end all subsidies for logging and mining on public lands and immediately suspend all such activities in all old-growth forests and other threatened habitats on public lands.” (CCAR resolution, March 2000)

DISCUSSION

BLESSINGS:

For Assiyah, we eat nuts and fruits with a tough skin to remind us of the protection the earth gives. Through this act, we acknowledge that we need protection in life, both physical and emotional. We bless our defense systems. [EB]
Say one of these brachot [blessings] over fruit:

Traditional brachah over the fruit: “Ba‑ruch ata A‑do‑nai El‑o‑hay‑nu mel‑ech ha‑olam bo-ray pree ha‑etz. Blessed are You, Lord Our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who creates the fruit of the tree.”

Reinterpretive translation: “Blessed are You, Eternal One, the Majesty of the World, creating the fruit of the tree.”

Transformative brachah over the fruit: “Brucha aht Yahhhh, El‑o‑hay‑nu ru’ach ha‑olam bo‑rate pree ha‑etz. Blessed are You our God, Interbreathing-Spirit of the world, Who creates the fruitfulness of the tree.” [AW]
Eat the fruits with hard shells on the outside and soft fruit on the inside. (e.g. walnuts, oranges)

Our first cup of wine is white. In winter, when nature is asleep, the earth is barren, sometimes covered with snow. [EB]
Say one of the brachot over wine:

Traditional brachah over the wine: Ba‑ruch ata A‑do‑nai El‑o‑hay‑nu mel‑ech ha‑olam bo‑ray pree ha‑gafen.Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.

Reinterpretive translation: “Blessed are You, Eternal One, the Majesty of the World, creating the fruit of the vine.”

Transformative bracha over the wine: “N’varekh et eyn ha’khayim, matzmikhat pri hagafen. Let us bless the Wellspring of Life, that ripens fruit on the vine.” [Marcia Falk]
Drink the first cup.

II. YETZIRAH (Formation, Relationship, Ethics, Emotion): The World of Water

Yetzirah is the world of formation and birth. Water, the fluid element, gives shape to all matter. We honor the rain and rivers, the water table and the oceans that must be healed from the poisons that afflict them. [EB]
SONG: “Ushavtem Mayim”

READINGS

“Water is the place of birthing and rebirthing. ‘Mayim” shares the same root as the word for What, ‘Mah.’ A person who immerses in water is nullifying her/his ego and asking “What am I?” Ego is the essence of permanence while water is the essence of impermanence. When a person is ready to replace his ego with a question, then s/he is also ready to be reborn with its answer.” (Aryeh Kaplan, The Waters of Eden)

“From the forested headwaters to the agricultural midstream valleys to the commercial and industrial centers at the river’s mouth, good and bad news travels by way of water. Did my toilet flushing give downstream swimmers a gastrointestinal disease? Did the headwaters clear-cut kill the salmon industry at the river’s mouth? Did my city’s need for water drain off a river and close upriver farmland that fed me fresh vegetables? Did a toxic waste dump leak into the groundwater table and poison people in the next county? Watershed consciousness is, in part, a promotional campaign to advertise the mutual concerns and needs that bind upstream and downstream, instream and offstream peoples together.

“This journey is right out your window ‑ among the hills and valleys that surround you. It is the first excursion of thought into the place you live. It focuses on where your water comes from when you turn on the faucet; where it goes when you flush; what soils produce your food; who shares your water supply, including the fish and other non-human creatures. The watershed way is a middle way, singing a local song, somewhere close by, between Mind and Planet.” (Peter Warshall, The Whole Earth Catalogue)

“The dinner ritual I find most meaningful is washing my hands as the priests did before they performed a sacrifice. As I raise my hands to recite a blessing I remember that everything I will eat and drink contains water. Hydrofracking pollutes land, air and water. About half of the millions of gallons of water used to frack the wells remains underground, untreated. Pipes and casings are supposed to contain it, but over time cement shrinks and metal corrodes. The other half of the water is stored in tanks or open pits that are vulnerable to leaks. This water is supposed to be treated, but few facilities are prepared to handle it…

“So to safeguard the water we drink, we have to find another source of energy. Drilling has already begun in Pennsylvania and other states. In New York a grassroots movement has resulted in a temporary ban on fracking that has slowed down the gas companies. The short term goal is to ban fracking, the long term goal is to mobilize the political will to replace our current dangerous, shortsighted, fossil-fuel based energy system with a system based on renewable energy.” (From Mirele B. Goldsmith, “Keep The Frack Out of My Challah” and “My Fracking Nightmare and a Jewish Ritual of Dream Interpretation http://blogs.forward.com/the-jew-and-the-carrot/139229/keep-the-frack-ou… <https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5741&qid=2684789> and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mirele-b-goldsmith-phd/my-fracking-nightma… <https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5742&qid=2684789> )

“Fracking makes water disappear…. When a single well is fracked, several millions of gallons of fresh water are removed from lakes, streams, or groundwater aquifers and are entombed in deep geological strata, up to a mile or more below the water table. Once there, this water is, very likely, removed from the water cycle permanently. As in forever. It will no longer swirl with tadpoles or ripple with fish.” (Sandra Steingraber, Raising Elijah)

“The Jewish Council for Public Affairs believes that:

Studies into hydrofracking impacts, including impacts on groundwater sources, surface water sources, air quality, human and animal health, infrastructure and ecosystems, should be continued and conducted with urgency by federal and state regulatory agencies. Appropriate safeguards to protect public health and the environment should be adopted and enforced based on the identification of impacts. …
States should require safeguards for protecting underground water sources and adequate setbacks to keep drilling sites a safe distance away from residences, schools, healthcare facilities, creeks, lakes, rivers, and sources of public-drinking-water supplies, as well from other areas of high ecological value. …
The drilling industry must identify all chemicals used in the fracking process, stop using any that are banned by appropriate regulation, and should be strongly urged to find and use non-hazardous substitutes for hazardous chemicals used in the fracking process. Drillers should be encouraged to recycle and/or ensure proper disposal of all wastewater.
An increase in the natural-gas supply should not result in reduced investment in research and development of alternative and renewable energy sources.” (Adopted by JCPA plenum in 2012. http://engage.jewishpublicaffairs.org/blog/comments.jsp?blog_entry_KEY=6341&t= <https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5728&qid=2684789> )

DISCUSSION

BLESSINGS

For Yetzirah, we eat fruits with a tough inner core and a soft outer. Through this act we acknowledge the need to fortify our hearts. With a strong heart and a pure vision we can pull down the protective outer shell. Our lives grow richer and deeper as we become available to the miracle of nature which surrounds us. [EB]
[In some streams of Judaism, as directed by Peri Eytz Hadar, the brachot over the second, third, and fourth courses of fruit and wine are said by someone who has not eaten the previous fruit or wine.} Say one of the brachot over fruit. (See above.)

Eat the fruits which are soft on the outside and have hard pits on the inside (e. g. peaches).

As spring approaches, the sun’s rays begin to thaw the frozen earth. Gradually, the land changes its colors from white to red, as the first flowers appear on the hillsides. So, our second cup will be a bit darker. We pour a little red wine into the white. [EB]
Say one of the brachot over wine. (See above.)

Drink the second cup.

BRIYAH (Creative Intellect): The World of Air

How can we pronounce the Unpronounceable Name of God, “YHWH”? By breathing YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh – the “still silent voice” Elijah heard.

We breathe in what the trees breathe out; the trees breathe in what we breathe out. We breathe each other into life: YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh.

SONG: “Adamah v’Shamayim”

READINGS

“Then YHWH God formed the adam (human earthling) of the dust of the adamah (earthy humus), and breathed into the nostrils the breath of life; and the human became a breathing life-form.” (Genesis 2:7).

The Hebrew word “ruach” means breath, wind, spirit, and Spirit. In this way it is like Greek “pneuma” and Latin “spiritus.” [AW]
“Without wind, most of Earth would be uninhabitable. The tropics would grow so unbearably hot that nothing could live there, and the rest of the planet would freeze. Moisture, if any existed, would be confined to the oceans, and all but the fringe of the great continents along a narrow temperate belt, would be desert. There would be no erosion, no soil, and for any community that managed to evolve despite these rigors, no relief from suffocation by their own waste products.

“But with the wind, Earth comes truly alive. Winds provide the circulatory and nervous systems of the planet, sharing out energy information, distributing both warmth and awareness, making something out of nothing.” (Lyall Watson, The Wind)

“I live life in growing orbits
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I will never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.
I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years.
And I still don’t know if I am a falcon
or a storm, or a great song.”
(Rainer Maria Rilke (1899), trans. Robert Bly. Book for the Hours of Prayer.)

“At the Burning Bush, the unquenchably fiery Voice tells Moses that the world is about to be transformed. And the Voice says that to accomplish this, Moses and the people must set aside the old sacred Name of the Divine and call upon the Voice through a new Name: YHWH.
“If we try to pronounce that Name with no vowels, what we say and hear is the still small voice of Breathing. YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh.
“And this Name describes the truth of our planet.
For we breathe in what the trees breathe out;
The trees breathe in what we breathe out:
We Interbreathe each other into life:
YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh.
“What we call the “climate crisis” is a radical disturbance in the Earth’s atmosphere that has thrown out of balance the mixture of what we breathe out and what the trees breathe out — that is, the balance of CO2 and oxygen. Human action to burn fossil fuels is forcing more CO2 into the atmosphere than Mother Earth can breathe.
“So the entire web of life as the human race has known it for our entire history as a species, including human life and civilization, is coming under great strain.
“If we hear the YHWH as the Interbreathing of all life, then that Name Itself is now in crisis. God’s Interbreathing Name is harshly wounded, choking. We must act to heal the Name.
“For Moses, the new Name made possible both resisting Pharaoh and shaping a new kind of society.
“For us, it means both resisting the modern Carbon Pharaohs that are bringing new Plagues upon our planet; and shaping a new society in which we are constantly aware that all life is Interbreathing, that we are interwoven with the eco-systems within which we live –- that indeed, YHWH, the Breath of Life, is ONE.
“And thus to affirm the truth of Sh-sh-sh-sh’ma! —- Hush’sh’sh’sh to hear the thin small Voice, the Breath of Life that’s Wholly One. “ (from Rabbi Arthur Waskow, “Do We Need to ReName God?” https://theshalomcenter.org/do-we-need-rename-god> <https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5743&qid=2684789>

““To preserve our planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current levels of 400 parts per million to below 350 ppm. But 350 is more than a number—it’s a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.

“Start a Campaign to Divest From Fossil Fuels! We’re all part of institutions that ought to be looking out for the public good, from city and state governments to religious institutions to other kinds of charities and non-profits. Most of these institutions invest money in stocks and bonds, and have a responsibility to divest from an industry that’s destroying our future.

“Fossil Free is an international campaign calling on institutions to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in solutions to climate change.” http://350.org/mission <https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5729&qid=2684789> >, http://campaigns.gofossilfree.org/> <https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5744&qid=2684789>

DISCUSSION

BLESSINGS:

For Briyah we taste fruits that are completely edible. In this world, where God’s protection is close at hand, we can let go of all barriers and try on freedom. We are co‑creators with God [EB]; indeed, we ourselves take part in YHWH, the Interbreath of Life.

Say one of the brachot over fruit. Eat the fruits which are soft throughout (e.g. strawberries, grapes).

In summer, when vegetable and fruits are abundant, we are reminded of the richness of life, filled with color. We drink red wine with a dash of white. [EB]
Say one of the brachot over wine. Drink the third cup.

IV: ATZILUT (Being, Closeness to the Divine): The World of Fire

There’s a fire alive within every living cell of every being. The carbons we eat burn in the presence of the oxygen we breathe giving us the energy to be. This spark of light is our connection to the Divine. [EB]

SONG: “B’orech nirey or – In Your light do we see light,” “This little light of mine.”

READINGS

“And the messenger of YHWH/ Yahhhh, the Interbreathing-Spirit of all life, appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he [Moses] looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.“ (Exodus 3:2).

“Here! The day is coming that will flame like a furnace, says the Infinite YHWH / Breath of Life, when all the arrogant and all evil-doers, root and branch, will like straw be burnt to ashes. Yet for those of you who revere My Name, a sun of justice will arise with healing in its wings /rays… . Here! Before the coming of the great and awesome day of YHWH/ the Breath of Life, I will send you the Prophet Elijah to turn the hearts of parents to children and the hearts of children to parents, lest I come and smite the earth with utter destruction.” (Malachi 3: 20-21, 23-24.)

[A midrashic reading of Malachi for our generation:]
“Your planet is heating like a furnace. Already droughts scorch your continents, already your waters boil into typhoons and hurricanes, already the ice melts and your sea-coasts flood. Yet even now you can turn away from the fires of coal and oil, turn to the solar energy and the winged wind that rise from a sun of justice and tranquility to heal your planet. For God’s sake, you must all take on the mantle of Elijah! Turn your own hearts to the lives of your children and the children of your children, turn their hearts to learning from the deepest teachings of the Wisdom you inherited – that together you can yet avert the utter destruction of My earth.” (Rabbi Arthur Waskow, “A Sun of Justice with Healing in its Wings <https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5730&qid=2684789> ” https://theshalomcenter.org/node/1497> <https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5745&qid=2684789> )

“The Central Conference of American Rabbis:

1. Reaffirms our 1975 resolution supporting the development of a national energy policy centered on conservation and development of alternative energy sources.

2. Calls upon governments at all levels to enforce existing legislation and policies to achieve these goals.

3. Calls upon the oil, automobile, and other industries which produce energy or contribute to its use to develop policies.

4. Opposes off shore oil-drilling, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and drilling in any environmentally sensitive area.

5. Calls upon the federal, state and local government to enact legislation that would mandate energy efficiency and develop safe and renewable energy sources.” (Adopted by the 103rd Annual Convention of CCAR, April, 1992)

DISCUSSION

BLESSINGS:

As summer turns to fall, plants are preparing seed for the next cycle of nature. We too must nourish the world for the coming generation. Just as the natural world goes through changes to achieve its full potential, we also need to change: we need to get rid of anger, envy and greed so that we can be free to grow. When we do this, we will become very strong, healthy trees, with solid roots in the ground and our arms open to the love that is all around us. Many of our trees become red. We will drink the fourth cup full-strength red. [EB]
Say one of the brachot over wine.

Drink the fourth cup.

At the level of Being, the Fruit is fully potential, expressing the Will to create, and is not itself a creation. Therefore we pause to say the blessing over life renewed and ever-growing, with no physical fruit:

Traditional brachah: “Ba‑ruch ata A‑do‑nai El‑o‑hay‑nu mel‑ech ha‑olam sheh’hekhianu v’kimanu v;higianu lazman hazeh.. Blessed are You, Lord Our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who fills us with life, lifts us up, and carries us to this moment.

Transformative brachah: “Brucha aht Yahhhh, El‑o‑hay‑nu ruach ha‑olam olam sheh’hekhiatnu v’kimatnu v’higiatnu lazman hazeh. Blessed are You our God, Interbreathing-spirit of the world, Who fills us with life, lifts us up, and carries us to the moment of THIS.”

SONG: Debbie Friedman or Shefa Gold versions of the blessing.

[After the seder, a fuller meal using the foods that are mentioned in Deuteronomy 8: 7-9: “…a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil, and honey; a land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness,” can be eaten. ]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* Ellen Bernstein created “The Tree’s Birthday,” the first Tu B’Shvat Haggadah widely used in the US, and founded the first Jewish organization focused entirely on protection of the Earth, Shomrei Adamah, in 1988. For her continuing work, see http://www.ellenbernstein.org <https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5731&qid=2684789> >

*Rabbi Arthur Waskow founded (1983) and directs The Shalom Center www.theshalomcenter.org> <https://theshalomcenter.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5732&qid=2684789> . He wrote Seasons of Our Joy (1980), the first English-language book on the Jewish festivals to treat them all as rooted in the cycles of Earth, Sun, and Moon, and the first to treat Tu B’Shvat as an integral part of the holy-day cycle. He pioneered in the shaping of Eco-Judaism, both through his books (Seasons of Our Joy; Godwrestling – Round 2; Down-to-Earth Judaism; editor, Torah of the Earth (2 vols); co-editor, Trees, Earth, & Torah: A Tu B’Shvat Anthology); and through The Shalom Center’s religiously rooted social action (e.g. the 1996 Tu B’Shvat Seder to protect the redwood forest, the 1998 Hoshana Rabbah celebration to protect the Hudson River); as a member of the Coordinating Committee of IMAC (Interfaith Moral Action on Climate); and as a member of the Stewardship Committee of the Green Hevra.

Please feel free to share this Haggadah with others. To support The Shalom Center’s work in creating this kind of fusion of spiritual ceremony, poetic insight, and activist energy for profound social change, please click to our website at https://www.theshalomenter.org and then on the “Donate” button in the left column Thanks! – Shalom, salaam, peace – AW

Transformative Judaism and our Planetary Crisis

TheShalomCenter — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 06:01:04 +0000

Since human action has endangered the web of life on earth, human action can heal it.

And the religious and spiritual communities of our planet have the wisdoms and the tools to do the healing.

Judaism is especially relevant because, unlike most world religions, we preserve the teachings of an indigenous people in the biblical tradition –- the spiritual wisdom of shepherds and farmers. And yet as a world people, we can now apply the earthiness of our origins to the Whole Earth.

That does not mean simply repeating the ancient practices. For instance, the ancient code of kosher food does not take into account that we now “eat” coal and oil and crucial minerals like lithium. Is there an “eco-kosher” way of eating them, as well as caring for vegetables and fruit and kosher animals in ways traditional kashrut did not? Can we shape our ways of celebrating Sukkot and Passover and Tu B’Shvat and life-cycle ceremonies so that they embody social action as an aspect of spiritual deepening?

For The Shalom Center, this transformation in our reality calls for action in four aspects of reality:

1. Spiritually, the creation of new forms of prayer meditation, and celebration that draw us into fuller awareness of the interweaving of all life: for instance, “pronouncing” and understanding the Sacred God-Name “YHWH” as YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh, the Interbreathing of all life – rather than Lord or King. Ruach ha'olam, rather than melech ha'olam.

2. Intellectually, the absorption of ecological science into what we teach and learn as sacred Torah, just as Maimonides integrated the best science and philosophy of his day into Torah. Ecology takes seriously both each distinctive niche of each life form and the flow that connects them. It does what Kabbalah yearns toward: reintegrating the two Trees of Eden — the Tree of Flowing Life and the Tree of Distinction-making — into One.

3. Relationally, our recognition of the varied ethical, religious, and spiritual life-paths as necessary and valuable unfoldings of the varied “organs” of human civilization and planetary life – as different from each other and as equally necessary to each other as the brain, liver, heart, and lungs in a single body. To heal our planet in the present crisis, we will need to draw on the wisdom and commitment of every human culture. So we need to move beyond interfaith dialogue into the pursuit of interrelational work among the different communities.

4. Vigorous action to confront the modern Carbon Pharaohs that are bringing plagues of drought, flood, war, and famine on the Earth and all Humanity – action that might include lobbying, voting, rallies, vigils, nonviolent civil disobedience, organizing counter-institutions like coops, organic farms, etc., and economic action to Move Our Money/Protect Our Planet (MOM/POP) – moving our money from corporate investments and banks that endanger Mother Earth to companies, banks, coops, etc. that protect and heal her.

As we move forward in all these aspects of the world, we create a Judaism that heals and transforms itself in order to heal and transform the world. We learn anew what ancient Torah teaches: – “Sh’sh’sh’shma! Hush’sh’sh’sh and Hear, all you who wrestle with the Ultimate — Hear the still small sound of almost-silent breathing: the Breath of Life is ONE

The Sacred Green Menorah: Deeper Meanings of Hanukkah & Earth

TheShalomCenter — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 05:25:13 +0000

On Shabbat Hanukkah (this year, Nov. 29-30), we read an extraordinary passage from the Prophet Zechariah. Speaking during the Babylonian Captivity, he envisions the future Great Menorah, taking its sacred place in a rebuilt Holy Temple.

Zechariah, in visionary, prophetic style, goes beyond the Torah’s description of the original Menorah (literally, a Light-bearer). That Menorah was planned as part of the portable Shrine, the Mishkan, in the Wilderness.

First Zechariah describes the Menorah of the future that he sees: “All of gold, with a bowl on its top, seven lamps, and seven pipes leading to the seven lamps.” It sounds like the original bearer of the sacred Light. But then he adds a new detail: “By it are two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and one on the left.” (4: 2-3)

And then –– in a passage the Rabbis did not include in the Haftarah reading for Shabbat Hanukkah – –- Zechariah explains that the two olive trees are feeding their oil directly into the Menorah (4: 11-13). No human being needs to press the olives, collect the oil, clarify and sanctify it. The trees alone can do it all.

Now wait! This is extraordinary. What is this Light-Bearer that is so intimately interwoven with two trees? Is the Menorah the work of human hands, or itself the fruit of a tree?

Both, and beyond. In our generation it might be called a “cyborg,” a cybernetic organism that is woven from the fruitfulness both of “adamah” (an earthy sprouting from the humus-soil) and “adam” (a human earthling). Just as earth and earthling were deeply intermingled in one of the biblical Creation stories (Gen 2: 7), so the Divine Light must interweave them once again, and again and again, every time the Light is lit in the Holy Temple.

What stirs Zechariah to this uncanny vision? If we listen closely to the Torah’s original description of the Menorah for the wandering desert Shrine, we may not be quite so surprised. For the Torah describes a Menorah that has branches, cups shaped like almond-blossoms, blossoms, petals, and calyxes (the tight bundles of green leaves that hold a blossom). (Exodus 25:31-40 and 37:17-24)

In short, a Tree of Light, a Green Menorah. Small wonder that Zechariah envisioned its receiving oil directly from the olive-trees!

Since Zechariah is seen as a Prophet by Christians and Muslims as well as by Jews, his vision may invite all three Abrahamic communities to connect with the Green Menorah Covenant.

And in the more specifically Jewish legend told by the Talmud as the origin of Hanukkah, the Light itself is a miracle. Oil that would normally have been enough only for one day’s worth of light lasts for eight days, until more oil can be consecrated.

At the physical level, “One day’s oil meets eight days’ needs.” This is olive oil, a growable, replaceable, sustainable source of light.

Different from coal, oil, and frackable unnatural gas. For all these are limited, and as their easily available sources run out the corporations whose profit depends on them turn to Extreme Extraction: mountaintop destruction for coal, using chemicalized water under extreme pressure to smash shale rock for gas, mining ultra-carbon-heavy Tar Sands, drilling miles deep beneath ocean floors. All these damage and endanger the local communities where they are used.

And now we know that burning these fossil fuels in huge amounts scorches our planet as well. Floods our rivers and our coastal cities, parches our cornfields, imposes higher food prices on everyone and brings famine and starvation upon the hungry billions, storms our subways, melts the snows of Kilimanjaro and the Himalayas that meet the water needs of whole civilizations.

So the Talmudic legend of the eight-day lamp takes on a Prophetic wisdom for our day: Conserving energy.

Seen this way, the Green Menorah can become the symbol of a covenant to renew the miracle of Hanukkah in our own generation: Cutting oil consumption by seven-eighths – and quickly. If not now, when?

If this seems overwhelmingly hard to accomplish against the entrenched power of our own oil empires, Hanukkah also reminds us of the victory of the guerrilla band of Maccabees over the great empire of their generation: Small groups of seemingly powerless human beings can face huge and powerful institutions – and change the world.

But let us not stop at the economic, political, or even ecological levels of meaning. At the spiritual level, “seven” is the number of Fullness and “eight” is the number of “Beyond.” So the storied One Light that becomes Eight Lights reminds us that the Infinite is always present in the One.

It reminds us that conserving oil, or coal, or our planet, is not just a political or economic or even ecological decision. It comes when we take into our hearts the knowledge that addiction to material possessiveness, hyper-ownership – needing to make eight bottles of oil in order to “own” the Temple’s Light – is likely to be a form of idolatry, not a path to our well-being. Blowing up mountaintops, raping the Gulf of Mexico, mining Tar Sands, fracking shale are likely to be forms of idolatry, not paths to our well-being.

Beyond every “thing” is the Infinite – and the Infinite is always present when we choose to light the Light.

Blessings of a Light-filled Hanukkah to light up our path ahead – the path to heal our wounded earth, to pursue shalom, salaam, paz, peace for earthy humankind in the midst of sacred Earth .